After
the failure of the uprisings in Italy in 1830-1831,
Giuseppe Mazzini emerged as the leader of the Italian risorgimento--the movement for Italian nationhood. In 1831,
he founded an organization known as Young Italy whose goal was the creation
of a united Italian republic. This selection
is excerpted from the oath that the members of young Italy were required
to take.

∎Giuseppe Mazzini wrote The Young Italy in 1832. The following
comes from the section entitled "The Oath."

Young Italy is a brotherhood of Italians who believe in
a law of Progress and Duty, and are convinced that Italy is destined to become one nation,-convinced also that she possesses sufficient strength within herself to become
one, and that the ill success of her former efforts is to be attributed not to the weakness, but to the misdirection
of the revolutionary elements within her,-that the
secret of force lies in constancy and unity of
effort. They join this association in the firm
intent of consecrating both thought and action
to the great aim of reconstituting Italy as one independent
sovereign nation of free men and equals....

Each member will, upon his initiation into the asso­ciation of Young Italy, pronounce the following form of oath, in
the presence of the initiator:

In the name of God and of Italy;

In the name
of all the martyrs of the holy Italian cause who have fallen beneath foreign
and domestic tyranny;

By the duties which bind me to the land wherein God has placed me, and to the brothers whom God has given me;

By the love-innate in all men-I bear to the country that gave my mother birth, and will be the home of my children....

By the sufferings of the millions,

I, believing in the mission intrusted by God to Italy,
and the duty of every Italian to strive to attempt its fulfillment; am convinced that where God has ordained that a nation
shall be, He has given the requisite power to create
it; that the people are the depositaries of that power, and that in its right
direction for the people, and by the people, lies the secret of victory;
convinced that virtue consists in action and
sacrifice, and strength in union and constancy of purpose: I give my
name to Young Italy, an association of men holding the same faith, and swear:

To dedicate myself wholly and forever to the endeavor with them to constitute Italy one free, independent,
republican nation; to promote by every means in my
power-whether by written or spoken word, or by action the education of my Italian
brothers toward the aim of Young Italy; toward association, the sole means of its accomplishment, and to virtue, which
alone can render the conquest lasting; to abstain from enrolling myself in any
other association from this time forth;
to obey all the instructions, in conformity with

the spirit of Young Italy, given me by those who
represent with me the union of my Italian
brothers; and to keep the secret of these
instructions, even at the cost of my life; to assist my brothers of
the association both by action and
counsel-NOW AND FOREVER.